National Roundup

Texas
Appeals court orders Biden deportation priorities reheard
VICTORIA, Texas (AP) — A federal appeals court on Tuesday ordered a new hearing by the full court on the legality of the Biden administration’s selective criteria on who should be deported.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans vacated a Sept. 15 ruling by a three-judge 5th Circuit panel that upheld administration policy.

The Tuesday order said one of the court’s 26 judges requested a poll of the judges on the appeal by Texas and Louisiana of the panel’s ruling of a lower-court ruling that the Biden administration’s interim enforcement priorities were illegal. A majority of the court’s 17 active judges voted to order a rehearing by all of the judges, the order stated.

No date was scheduled for the rehearing.

In an Aug. 19 ruling, U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton of Victoria, Texas, struck down the administration policy that prioritizes for deportation those who crossed the border illegally who are deemed to be national security threats, who have serious criminal records, or who have been picked up at the border.

Tipton, who held the Biden administration’s priorities to be illegal, was appointed to the bench by the Trump administration, the policy of which made everyone in the country illegally a priority for deportation.

Messages to the Texas Attorney General’s Office and the U.S. Justice Department seeking comment were not immediately returned.

Texas
Judge deciding what U.S. should pay for church shooting
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department and survivors of a 2017 Texas church massacre are at odds over how much the Air Force should pay in compensation  for failing to flag a conviction that might have prevented the gunman from legally buying the weapon used in the shooting.

During closing arguments Monday in a civil trial in federal court in San Antonio, the Justice Department said its proposal of $31.8 million was based on evidence presented during a monthlong trial on damages and on previous court cases, federal and Texas state law, and disbursements from a fund for victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Lawyers for the survivors and for relatives of those killed at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs are asking for $418 million, the San Antonio Express-News reported. Some of the plaintiffs’ lawyers called the government’s proposed payment for pain, suffering and mental anguish “ridiculous,” unjust and unfair.

Devin Patrick Kelley opened fire during a Sunday service there in November 2017,  killing more than two dozen people. Kelley died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound after he was shot and chased by two men who heard the gunfire at the church.

The civil trial to assess damages began in October. U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez in July  ruled that the Air Force was “60% liable”  for the attack because it failed to submit Kelley’s assault conviction during his time in the Air Force to a national database.

Rodriguez said Monday that he could not take unrelated settlements into account in determining a verdict in the Sutherland Springs case. He promised careful consideration of the evidence and said he would deliver a verdict “as soon as I can.”

The approximately 80 claimants include relatives of those killed as well as 21 survivors and their families. Authorities put the official death toll at 26 because one of the 25 people killed was pregnant.

In seeking compensation, many of the plaintiffs cited loss of companionship: the absence of parents who cannot attend weddings or graduations or be a presence in their lives.

“We’ve used the words shocking, horrific, inhumane to describe what’s happened to these families,” Jamal Alsaffar, an attorney for several of the plaintiffs, said in court. “But the same words can be used to describe what was filed by the government.”

Missouri
Ex-airline employee sentenced for stealing guns from bags
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A former Southwest Airlines baggage handler was sentenced Tuesday to six months in prison after pleading guilty to knowingly possessing or receiving stolen guns.

Federal prosecutors said Mark Hunter of St. Louis was charged after a passenger traveling through St. Louis Lambert International Airport reported that a pistol had been reported stolen from his luggage.

Federal agents investigated and found seven reported thefts of guns from luggage checked on Southwest over a five-month period in 2020.

After comparing Southwest scheduling records of baggage employees and the dates of the thefts, investigators focused on Hunter, who admitted to stealing five guns from checked bags, according to prosecutors.

Hunter faces three years of supervised release after his prison time, prosecutors said.

Washington
Costumed Jan. 6 rioter plans to appeal conviction, sentence
The Arizona man who stormed the U.S. Capitol while sporting face paint, no shirt and a furry hat with horns plans to appeal his felony conviction and nearly 3 1/2-year prison sentence.

A notice filed in court Tuesday on behalf of Jacob Chansley said he was going to make an appeal. A day earlier, Chansley officially ended his relationship with his attorney and hired another lawyer.

Chansley is limited in the type of appeal he can make.

In pleading guilty to obstructing an official proceeding, Chansley waived the right to appeal his conviction and sentence, though he can seek an appeal if he argues he had ineffective assistance from his previous attorney.

Chansley has acknowledged he was among the first 30 rioters in the building, used a bullhorn to rile up others and penned a note while in the Senate to Vice President Mike Pence saying, “It’s Only A Matter of Time. Justice Is Coming!”

Though he isn’t accused of violence, prosecutors say Chansley went into the attack armed with a spear, ignored repeated police orders to leave the building and gloated about his actions in the days immediately after the attack.

Chansley is among the more than 675 people charged in the Capitol riot.